Friday (April 13th) my water broke at 11:20pm. I called the MW, Sue, to tell her and to let her know that we were still planning to labor at home as long as possible. I called my sister, Kelli, to come down, since she was going to be one of my coaches. I got back into bed to try to get some sleep while my husband, Kevin, did some last minute nesting. Kelli got here at about 1:00am and came upstairs to talk to me. I was still doing fine and just having easy contractions about 5-6 minutes apart. Kevin came back to bed so we could try to get some sleep, knowing that we could have a long day ahead of us.

I finally fell asleep around 3:00am. I was waking up about every 25-40 minutes with an intense ctx but other than that slept well until 7:00am. By then my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and I was having to lean over and breathe through them. At 7:15am Sue called to see how things were doing. She let me know that she would call back and check on me again in a few hours if I hadn't headed to the hospital yet.

At 9:30 the MW, that was not on call, called to tell me that I was going to have to go into the hospital by 11:30am and get hooked up to an IV with antibiotics, since my water had been broken for nearly 12 hours. My wishes for an intervention and drug free birth did not matter to the hospital and the hands of the MW's were tied because they practice through the hospital. I was really upset but knew that there was nothing that the MW could do. I cried for a few minutes and then pulled myself together and told her that I would do what I had to do even though I did not like it. She said just to be sure that I ate and kept drinking lots of fluids.

My contractions from that point started to slow down, which made me even more concerned, but I decided to just go on and let nature run its course. Getting upset was only going to make things worse. We left for the hospital at 11:15am and arrived at 11:31am. Sue met me at the front desk to give me support and to again reassure me that she was doing all that she could for me. I got changed and hooked up to the monitors. Everything looked good.

I started having really intense contractions about 10 minutes after I got there. Sue checked me and I was already 6cm, 100% and at 0 station. I was ecstatic because my contractions, to me, hadn't been that bad yet. I told her that I thought the baby was going to be a boy and was going to be born at 2:30pm. She said, she didn't know about 2:30 but atleast by supper time. I told her that would work!

They decided to get the IV hooked up and out of the way. At this point I got very upset, you have to know too that I have a serious phobia of needles.

Sue tried to put the IV in my arm but my vein collapsed so the nurse tried again in my hand and that vein collapsed as well. By now I was hysterical. Sue made a comment about how I got to 6cm smiling and laughing but you pull out a needle and I just cannot handle it. She decided the best thing would be to let me calm down and to try again 15 minutes later.

Sue thought that the baby was likely posterior so she had me get on my hands and knees to labor and to get the baby to flip. She got a hot water bottle and rolled that on my lower back, which made the pain easier to handle. I was alittle concerned at this point because I knew that delivering posterior can be difficult and I was also concerned that if they did not get the IV to work that the baby would have to have the anitbiotics in an IV after he was born.

At about 1:00 I got up to go to the bathroom and I started crying and telling Kevin that I was tired and that it really hurt. I got back on the bed and started getting really upset and telling everyone that it really really hurt and that someone needed to do something. Sue had stepped out to get some ice and to call and try to get the ok to let me go to 18 hours before the IV was necessary. She came back in and I was really starting to lose it. Kevin told her that he thought I was transitioning.

Immediately I started having the urge to push. She checked me and said I feel the head, it's time to push. I had one more contraction and she told me I needed to turn over on my back because I kept wanting to pull my knees together. I did that with some help from Kevin and starting really pushing. I pushed about 20 minutes and through 7 contractions. The baby had turned during the laboring on my hands and knees. Sue told me to stop pushing because she needed to get the cord from around the neck. She then told me to give her a little push and with that the baby was out.

Kevin immediately looked to see what the baby was. He looked at me crying and yelled "It's a BOY!". He was so excited. Kevin cut the cord after it stopped pulsing.

So after 12 hours of easy labor, 2 of hard labor and 20 minutes of pushing Nikolas Eli Carpenter was born at 1:40pm. Out little bundle of joy was 7lbs 8oz, 20.5 inches long, and had a 12.5 inch head.